Pioneer Metric Century™ Reflection

Pioneer Metric Century™ riders leave start location at Columbia Distributing in Canby. Photo by Ted Magnuson.

Pioneer is back! You will find other accounts in the newsletter, but everyone’s experience is unique. My brief account is from the perspective of start/finish director.

Saturday, June 11, was another of our cloudy, drippy, threatening spring days. The forecast had been bad but was a bit more favorable on Saturday morning. All the same, quite a few of our pre-registered riders chose to forego the ride. Only about 15 signed up on ride day. In total, we had about 111 riders out on the courses.

Our support-and-gear (SAG) drivers, Eric Hendricks, Dennis Hogan, and Kathleen Hellem did have some activity and drove a few folks in. That is why we have SAGs. Stuff happens. Bikes fail, bodies fail – riders need a hand.  ✎

Photo by Maria Sworske.

The main issue that day was the amount of rain that had fallen previously which caused high rivers and actual flooding. Several locations along our routes had water covering the roadways. All ended up being passable by cyclists, but it was a major concern for a bit as riders made their way around the routes and the SAG drivers assessed risks for the riders.

I think we all enjoyed the start/finish location of Columbia Distributing in Canby. We didn’t need volunteers to guide people to park in a wet, muddy field. It was clean and easily accessible. We saved money as the location was donated. Plus, Columbia donated some water and a new energy drink for our event! The downside was that there was no electricity, but Cindy and Alan Coppola brought their generator, so there was fresh, hot coffee and music (at times!). That coffee, on that particular day, was a huge hit. Khaliyah added more fun with red and blue balloons and there were bells to ring to welcome in riders.

Once again, and for the final time, I want to thank our president, Doug Myers, who made this happen. He fine-tuned this event, which has been our signature, and rebooted, resuscitated, resurrected, revived – whatever you want to call it – and got it up and running again. It took someone like Doug to push it through and tweak it so we could manage it. We have had many wonderful Spring Classic/Pioneer Century® events over the years, with hard-working, hard-driving coordinators; but it would be impossible and impractical to simply follow the exact blueprint from one of those – even as good as they were. No, we needed someone to rein in expenses, the need for volunteers, the need for rest stops – not because anything was wrong but because we were starting over after three years without a Pioneer and needed it to be doable.

It was doable, and we did it! Thank you all for your support in volunteering and riding.

Ann Morrow, Pioneer Metric Century™ Start/Finish Director